The College Football Playoff field is set. Breaking down path to title game in Miami
The road to Hard Rock Stadium for the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship Game is set.
The 12-team field for the playoff was set Sunday afternoon, unveiled on a national ESPN broadcast. The five highest-ranked conference champions and the next seven highest-ranked teams that did not win their conference crown as decided by the CFP’s selection committee create the field.
The selection committee — a 12-member cross-section of the college football world that includes current athletic directors and current and former coaches, administrators plus one sports writer and a former player — had three major decisions to make when deciding the field.
1.) How far to drop Ohio State after falling 13-10 to Indiana in the Big Ten Championship Game? The Buckeyes and Hoosiers were ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, entering the game and were the final undefeated teams at the FBS level entering Saturday.
The committee decided to put Ohio State No. 2, enough of a drop to reflect the loss but not enough to knock the Buckeyes out of receiving a first-round bye.
2.) How to order the foursome of Miami, Notre Dame, BYU and Alabama to determine the final two at-large teams. They were ranked No. 9 Alabama, No. 10 Notre Dame, No. 11 BYU and No. 12 Miami on Tuesday in the committee’s penultimate ranking. However, BYU and Alabama each lost in convincing fashion in their conference championship games on Saturday (BYU lost 34-7 to Texas Tech in the Big 12 championship to go 11-2, while Alabama lost 28-7 to Georgia in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game to finish 10-3). Neither Miami nor Notre Dame played in a conference title game but went 10-2.
The committee decided with Alabama at No. 9 and Miami at No. 10, putting the Crimson Tide and Hurricanes into the final two at-large spots while eliminating Notre Dame and BYU from the field.
3.) Who should be the final conference champion guaranteed a spot in the field between a five-loss Duke team that won the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game or a one-loss James Madison team that won the Sun Belt Conference?
The committee chose James Madison.
The 12 teams
No. 1 Indiana Hoosiers (Big Ten champion)
No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes (Big Ten at-large)
No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs (Southeastern Conference champion)
No. 4 Texas Tech Red Raiders (Big 12 champion)
No. 5 Oregon Ducks (Big Ten at-large)
No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels (SEC at-large)
No. 7 Texas A&M Aggies (SEC at-large)
No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners (SEC at-large)
No. 9 Alabama Crimson Tide (SEC at-large)
No. 10 Miami Hurricanes (Atlantic Coast Conference at-large)
No. 11 Tulane Green Wave (American Conference champion)
No. 12 James Madison Dukes (Sun Belt champion)
The schedule
The playoff is four rounds. The top four seeds — Indiana, Ohio State, Georgia and Texas Tech — received a first-round bye. The remaining eight teams will play games on the home fields of the Nos. 5-8 teams, with the No. 5 seed hosting the No. 12 seed, the No. 6 seed hosting the No. 11 seed, the No. 7 seed hosting the No. 10 seed and the No. 8 seed hosting the No. 9 seed.
One of those games will be played on Dec. 19 (8 p.m.), while the other three will be on Dec. 20 (noon, 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.).
Those matchups: No. 5 Oregon hosting No. 12 James Madison; No. 6 Ole Miss hosting No. 11 Tulane; No. 7 Texas A&M hosting No. 10 Miami; and No. 8 Oklahoma hosting No. 9 Alabama.
From there, the four quarterfinals will be at the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 31 (7:30 p.m.), Orange Bowl on Jan. 1 (noon), Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 (4 p.m.) and Sugar Bowl (8 p.m.) with the top four seeds playing winners from the first round.
No. 1 seed Indiana will play the winner of Oklahoma-Alabama in the Rose Bowl.
No. 2 seed Ohio State will play the winner of Texas A&M-Miami in the Cotton Bowl.
No. 3 seed Georgia will play the winner of Ole Miss-Tulane in the Sugar Bowl.
And No. 4 seed Texas Tech will play the winner of Oregon-James Madison in the Orange Bowl.
The semifinals will be at the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 8 (7:30 p.m.) and Peach Bowl on Jan. 9 (7:30 p.m.), with the winners of those games coming to Hard Rock Stadium for the national championship on Jan. 19. The Fiesta Bowl will be the winner of the Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl. The Peach Bowl will be the winner of the Orange Bowl and Rose Bowl.
This is the second time Hard Rock Stadium is the site of the national championship game in the 12 years of the CFP format. The Miami Gardens stadium also hosted the championship following the 2020 season, but the normal pomp and circumstance that comes with a title game was non-existent that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Capacity at Hard Rock Stadium for the game — Alabama beat Ohio State 52-24 — was limited to about 20 percent.
Miami is also set to be the host city for the 2030 national championship game (to cap the 2029 season).
This story was originally published December 7, 2025 at 12:39 PM.
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